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Thursday, 6 February 2014

'Japanese Beethoven' admits he is a fraud

A deaf composer who has been dubbed "Japan's
Beethoven" has admitted hiring someone else to write his music for nearly
two decades.

Mamoru
Samuragochi shot to fame in the mid-1990s and is most famous for his Hiroshima
Symphony No 1, dedicated to those killed in the 1945 atomic blast.

The 50-year-old
has now confessed he has not composed his own music since 1996.

The real
composer of the musician's "hits" has not been formally named.

According to
Japanese media, though, a man named Takashi Niigaki issued a statement on
Wednesday claiming to be the "ghost" composer and to have worked for
Samuragochi for 18 years.

According to
his now defunct website, Samuragochi was taught how to play the piano by his
mother when he was four and began playing Beethoven and Bach when he was 10.

He made his
first breakthrough creating music for video games including Resident Evil and
Onimusha.

He completely
lost his hearing when he was 35 but continued to compose music, apparently
relying on his "absolute pitch".

His Hiroshima
Symphony No 1, completed in 2003, became a major classical music hit, selling
more than 100,000 copies in Japan.

It went on to
become an anthemic tribute known informally as the "Symphony of
Hope", after Samuragochi was filmed meeting survivors in the
tsunami-battered Tohoku region in 2011.

'Mentally distressed'

Apologising on
his behalf, Samuragochi's solicitor said the musician was "deeply sorry as
he has betrayed fans and disappointed others".

"He knows
he could not possibly make any excuse for what he has done. He is mentally
distressed and not in a condition to properly express his own thoughts".

Japanese
broadcaster NHK quoted Samuragochi saying: "I started hiring the person to
compose music for me around 1996, when I was asked to make movie music for the first
time.

"I had to
ask the person to help me for more than half the work because the ear condition
got worse."

It is believed
Samuragochi paid for the commissions while giving the ideas for his work to the
other composer.

"I've been
told that there are certain circumstances that make it hard for the person [who
composed the works] to come out in public," his lawyer said.

"Samuragochi
has therefore come to describe himself as the sole composer."

Nippon
Columbia, Samuragochi's record company, said it was "flabbergasted and
deeply infuriated" by his revelation.

"We had
been assured by him that he himself composed the works," it said.

Japanese Winter
Olympics hopeful, figure skater Daisuke Takahashi, has also been caught up in
the scandal as his programme includes a dance to Samuragochi's Sonatina for
Violin - also not penned by the musician.